DA LLA S GALBRA ITH.
594 mountains and homestead.
“There is
not one man or woman there who would believe in you as I have done, with the story clinging to you.” Dallas did not answer. He could not take his eyes from the delicate woman leaning back in the phaeton which rap idly approached them.
“ N o !” pursued the Doctor, energeti cally, motioning toward the great west ern valley which opened before them. “There lies your true path. I don’t want to see the man in you spoiled by the influence of people whom you have
left here.
Take your work and go out
with it. Let there be no looking back to the flesh-pots of Egypt.”
“It is not my work that keeps me from them,” cried Dallas, the fair, laugh ing face of his mother coming nearer and nearer.
“ It is the stain that is on me;
and it was no fault of mine.” “ But it will shut you out from them
for ever,” coolly.
“ What if you had
gone to any of them, as you did to me, and said *1 am a convict’ ?” Dallas did not speak, but he took off his cap, and, leaning forward, looked into the woman’s face that was now close upon them. The Doctor noticed that he drew his breath heavily: his face be came the poor vehicle of some great emotion. What could Mrs. Duffield know of the man? Colonel Pervis, who drove her, pulled up his horses with a jerk: “Off, Doc tor? WVestward the star of science takes its way,’ eh ?” with a furtive, in
quisitive glance at the workman beside him. Mrs. Dufiield also saw Dallas, but without looking at him. It was a noble, singular head, she thought; and the rolling gray collar and bare throat were wonderfully artistic. She stretched out her pretty little hand to the Doctor. “ We will miss you so much !” she said, gently. “ But you will find your way back to us some day, I am sure.” “Vill I find you here, if I do ?” “ Yes. I am at home now. This
life suits me.”
Her hand lay on the red
cushion, close to Dallas. For years he never had slept without holding it close
UUNB.
to his breast. The brown hair—there was a little gray in it now—how he used to tug at it and tangle it while she sewed at the slop-shop work! How patient
she was, laughing when he brought the tears to her eyes ! He could see a faint scar across her forehead: it was there that Duflield struck her that night when she held him in her lap to keep off the savage blows. That night he went to the coal-pits. He knew that the only chance for life for her was to be rid
of him. If he could but touch her! She was not a dainty lady to him : she was only— mother—mother. His hand, holding his cap, was near to hers.
The strong,
brawny man grew weak and blind. He dared not touch it. The stain was between them. She looked beyond him, as though he had been vacant air, to his companion. The Doctor’s kind heart could not
bear that any one should be neglected. “ My young friend goes with me,” he said. “ You must wish him God-speed. He is one of your own people.” Colonel Pervis mumbled some com monplace, and Mrs. Duffield promptly held out her ever-ready hand. She looked up with a smile, and their eyes met.
A strange, confused trouble came
into her face; it grew pale: she drew back the outstretched hand. “ Shall I tell her that I am a convict?” said Dallas, in a quiet whisper, turning to the Doctor. But the boy’s look made Pritchard think that he had suddenly gone mad. “ Tut! tut! I will drive on, Colonel Pervis. Good-day, Mrs. Dufiield. You are insane on this matter, Galbraith.”
“ Stay!” Dallas laid his hand on the Doctor’s wrist and brought the horse to a sudden halt. He looked at the phaeton which was driving rapidly away. “I may never come back,” he said, with a loud uncadenced laugh, “ and she—she is——-” “ What is she, Galbraith ?” “ This life suited her.” Should he bring his disgrace on her? “ She was a friend of mine once,” he said. loosing his hold on the reins. “ You had better sink all friendships.
